Tuesday, July 17th was my last day of vacation, and I wanted to see some windmills!
I had booked a trip through Viator to go to the Dutch countryside. The tour left a bit late because a fatality traffic accident had held up our bus, but they didn't cut our tour short, we just went longer into the day. Our first stop was at a farm that makes cheese. We got an explanation of how they make the Gouda, and then we got to sample cheese.
Lots of cheese
There were beautiful hydrangeas at the cheese farm. Cheese farm? Cheese factory? I don't know what you should call it!
The next stop was Volendam in North Holland
again, the flowers were beautiful
Volendam Harbor
We can call this picture "What Kara did NOT eat for lunch"...
The next stop was the town of Edam
More Hydrangeas!
Whenever the bridge has to be raised, the same guy raises all of them. No they aren't automated. He raises one, the boat passes, then he lowers it, hops on his bicycle and races to the next one, and so on.
The old cheese market in Edam...
This isn't a great picture because the house was across a canal and street, but they had the most amazing garden!
The last stop was Zaanse Schans
Windmills!
This is inside one of the windmills...
and more gorgeous hydrangeas!
a little family of ducks
We got a demonstration of how you make wooden shoes. We saw a pair made.
I thought I'd try on a pair
After making it back to Amsterdam, the tour bus dropped us the Adam tower. You had to take a ferry into Amsterdam which dropped you at the train terminal. From there, I walked back to the hotel, stopping back for some of those amazing cookies to take home.
My ankle that has a couple of screws in it was so unhappy at this point (see the one on the left). It was so swollen and not feeling great, and since it was dinner time, I called an end to the sight seeing.
I headed back over to the Foodhallen for a Pimm's and dinner.
That's a wrap on my vacation!
Comments